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Story Highlights

Fashion and technology will meet this week at the Wards Auto Interiors Conference in Detroit's Cobo Center. The annual awards for the 10 best new interiors tell automakers around the world what's working and what's not as they try to make their vehicles more appealing, luxurious and easy to use.

The conference Wednesday will recognize the winners and include panel discussions of trends in designing and engineering auto interiors.

Qucik hits: Ward's 10 best interiors

"It's not just about nice leather seats anymore. Interiors are now about usability, connectivity and driver distraction," Wards Auto World magazine editor-in-chief Drew Winter said. "Design is key."

The presence of pickups among the industry's most luxurious and advanced interiors is another major change since the conference took its current form seven years ago. This year's top 10 includes two: the Ford F-150 King Ranch and GMC Canyon. The Ram 1500 pickup and Chevrolet Silverado made the list in 2013 and '14, respectively.

A vehicle's interior must be all-new to be eligible for Wards' top 10. About 40 vehicles qualified for consideration this year. Wards' editors evaluated each for about 10 days.

2015 BMW i3.(Photo: Tom Murphy, WardsAuto)

"When AutoTrader talks to consumers in our online community about vehicle interiors, the words comfort and roominess constantly come up," AutoTrader senior analyst Michelle Krebs said. "We also hear from consumers that technology is very important to them. We know from our studies that consumers want this technology to be very intuitive — they want to learn it within about 15 minutes."

Wards is also looking for innovations and developments that will influence more upcoming vehicles.

"It's a moonshot interior," WardsAuto senior editor Tom Murphy said. "BMW's testing the waters to see what far-out things they can bring to the interiors of high-volume cars. It's pretty remarkable."

Murphy cited some interesting trends among vehicles that didn't make the top 10. For the third straight year, Audi, once the leader in interior design and innovation, did not make the top 10. Toyota also got shut out, despite the sporty looks of the 2015 Camry's interior and introducing two new Lexuses — the RC and NX. "The Lexus interiors checked off all the boxes, but there was nothing that surprised or delighted the editors," Murphy said.

After pushing the envelope for several years Hyundai went "very vanilla" with the 2015 Sonata interior, he said.

"Manufacturers are spending more money on interior features and materials" IHS Automotive senior analyst Stephanie Brinley said. "The interior is one of the reasons people choose one car over another."

It's important to innovate, even though every brand has met some customer resistance to new features and controls, Brinley said.

The conference will feature 40 speakers. More than 600 people are expected to attend.